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UK weather: British coasts suffer years of erosion in ‘hours’ of storms, says National Trust

From the Independent 21st February 2014: Some of Britain’s most famous sections of coastline have suffered years of erosion and damage in just a few weeks, or in some cases hours, as a result of the winter storms, the National Trust has said.

The Birling Gap in East Sussex which has seen about seven years of erosion in just two months

The high winds and waves that have repeatedly battered the UK have left cliffs crumbling, beaches and sand dunes eroded, defences breached and shorelines and harbours damaged.

The storms have caused the kind of damage the Trust was expecting, but not for some years to come, and the organisation is warning that with more extreme weather predicted, the rate of change on the coasts will speed up.

Other sites affected by the winter storms include Mullion Harbour in Cornwall, important wildlife sites at Blakeney, Norfolk, and Orford Ness, Suffolk, as well as Murlough national nature reserve in Northern Ireland, and Brownsea Island, Dorset.